EAST LANSING - Michigan State will put its 15-game winning streak on the line this weekend when the No. 6/No. 7 ranked Spartans travel to Evanston, Ill., to face a dangerous Northwestern ballclub fronted by John Shurna and Drew Crawford.

The Spartans are coming off of one their most impressive performances of the year in a 95-61 win over Iowa. But Michigan State coach Tom Izzo knows well that his team's decisive victory over the Hawkeyes, winning streak, and Top 10 ranking will mean very little when the ball tips this Saturday.

Izzo believe his players understand how quickly a winning streak can turn into a two or three-game losing skid in the Big Ten.

"Day Day (Draymond Green) and Austin (Thornton) have done a pretty good job of taking care of most of that," answered Izzo when asked if he was worried about his team getting too full of themselves after their recent success. "They all watch a lot of games and they see, ever day Day Day comes in and he says 'What's wrong with Pittsburgh, what's happening? How can they go from one extreme to another. Everybody knows that Wisconsin was on top of the world. Tenth or eleventh in the country and boom, boom, boom three games. I was paranoid when we had seven days off. We responded.

"Now, I don't really know where we are. We played really well (against Iowa). You are either going to build on it or pat yourself on the back, it depends on how small or big your goals are. Right now I haven't seen anybody (that doesn't understand that). We had a pretty good practice, considering the length of it; it was a longer practice than normal."